Blog

Reliability of VoIP

People often question the reliability of VoIP, and often question whether VoIP is stable enough to carry high priority calls like business calls.

To ensure a consistently reliable VoIP experience, VoIP calls rely on the following.

Your broadband

Your local network

The VoIP handsets

The VoIP company that handles the calls

Broadband

Broadband is not a new technology, and something that pretty well all businesses rely upon. Businesses generally report good stability with broadband, and find that broadband is a part of the network structure that they rely and depend upon, and without reliable broadband many businesses could not operate.

With the infrastructure of broadband becoming more and more advanced, and speeds increasing so rapidly, many new technologies have been adopted to help improve performance.

These include advanced technologies like –

FTTC – Fibre to the cabinet

FTTP – Fibre to the premises

EFM – Ethernet first mile

All of these broadband technologies allow high speed data transfer and boast an extremely high uptime and reliability.

VoIP users that adopt this technology often report bandwidth so large that they could have hundreds of simultaneous calls all down the one connection, with no latency or reduction in call quality.

Local Network

Your local network does need to be reliably wired and configured to maintain a long term, reliable VoIP experience.

The following are the key elements that are important to understand, and configure for VoIP-

Routers (use a Draytek router)

Switches (do not use managed switches)

Firewalls (if used then they must be configured with the handsets)

Servers (preferably not controlling DHCP addresses)

If you have decided to self install your telephone system then our technical support team will be happy to advise on ‘best practice’ when it comes to the configuration of your network, and will be happy to work with your IT provider if you have one.

Simply plugging handsets in to a PC network will work to start with, but any more than 1 handset on a network will usually become unreliable without optimising the network first.

vivi® branded handsets carry an extended warranty which is backed by a repair or replace guarantee.

VoIP network

When you use a cloud based hosted VoIP provider, these are the people that control your system and calls. This is the central hub and the most important part in the jigsaw when it comes to the reliability of VoIP.

When selecting the provider to work with, you will probably want to find out about some of their customer experiences, as well as find out how experienced they are in their field. After all, if you are to form a long term relationship with a provider, they need to deliver on all fronts and be experts at what they do, or things may go wrong.

vivi® are a business VoIP network and were established in 1996. vivi® are not the biggest voice network you will find, but offer very high levels of service and support and have an extremely loyal base of business customers who have been with us for many years.

Businesses of all sizes trust vivi® to handle their calls, from Dental surgeries to TV production companies (we also work with some high profile celebrity customers as well).

If you want to find out more about how VoIP can improve your business or about the reliability of VoIP then please call vivi® on 03333 447445.

About vivi®

vivi® own and operate a cloud based business VoIP phone network and have been delivering communications solutions since 1996.